Jogging!

We tried jogging again this morning. I haven't tried this for about 2 months since he used to think my running was a game and would start jumping up on me. Well, he no longer jumps up but this morning he started nipping at my pants. I would stop and make him sit, wait for him to focus (give me eye contact) then we would walk. When he seemed calm I tried jogging again and our cycle would continue. I believe he'll get better since the jumping up was horrible but the nipping seems easily correctable. Then we'll switch from jogging to running!

Sick, part II

After thinking this afternoon, I believe he caught the giardia from the dog hotel that I took him to a few weeks back.

Our vet noted that diarrhea is the most common symptom and he was definitely doing that after the hotel stay (and his stools still aren't quite back to normal). Plus, he's still suffering a loss of appetite since coming home from there, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's another side effect. Also, if it's contagious then it would be easy to spread in a place like a doggy daycare.

Sick

I called our vet on Tuesday and set an appointment since he was sneezing Monday and Tuesday. She was able to get us in immediately which was great! $150 later we left with some pills and they had drawn blood to do some tests. Oh and he got his next lyme shot.

The next morning he went #1 and #2 as usual. I caught samples of both, dropped them off at the vet and paid $60 for them to do tests. Later I received a voicemail from Brian telling me to call the vet to get the details behind the voicemail they left him.

Today I spoke with our vet and she informed me that Tailor's nose was due to an upper respiratory infection and that the pills she gave me were the right ones. She found in another test that he had caught giardia. She noted that it is contagious and gave me a bunch of information. I looked it up online to learn what I could then drove to the vet to get his medicine and paid another $40.

Thanks to the pills from Tuesday his nose seems to be just fine now (of course he'll get the rest of his meds to make sure). Now I just have 4 days left of giardia medicine to give him, I have to walk him in other areas than I usually do and he's not allowed to socialize with others. On the last day of this medication I need to bleach and sanitize our floors, his beds, his toys and anything he's been in contact with. Our vet actually told me to sanitize anything he may have soiled, but I'm going to err on the side of caution and clean everything he's touched.

This was supposed to be a cost free dog week and instead I spent $250 at the vet and another $30 at the pet store for new toys and treats.

Getting closer to the cats?

I'll admit that I'm frustrated. It's been 3 months and the dog and cats still aren't best friends. Tailor stays on his side of the house and the cats stay on theirs. Occasionally Leo, the boy cat, will go to Tailor's side and will meow really loud as if Tailor's attacking him (in reality Tailor's tail is wagging b/c he thinks it's a new friend and he's sniffing Leo who just stands there).

Usually I step in and "manage" the whole process which includes me saying, "Tailor, no! Stand back from the kitty!" and "Leo stop meowing and either make friends or get back to the other side of the house." It's obvious neither is a threat to the other, so today I decided to let them figure it out while I watched from around the corner. What I saw was wonderful.

Leo laid down in front of the french doors to get some sun. Tailor stood 2 feet away with tail wagging (as usual) and I said, "Tailor sit!" While watching the cat, he sat...then he laid down and looked away. Tailor and Leo were actually laying right next to each other and touching!

I was so excited that I called Brian. He appreciated the news and told me to take a picture but the happy moment was ruined before I could grab any photo taking device. Tailor jumped up and turned to Leo to sniff him. Leo didn't like the space invasion so he jumped up and left the room.

Success at this point is those 5 happy minutes. Plus, Leo's jumping into Tailor's space a lot now and they're checking each other out. I think Leo actually enjoys Tailor, it's just a matter of them understanding their differences.

Month 3

Another long month. It feels like we've had him for a year. I just can't believe it's only been 3 months. This month the highlights included my first vacation away from him, him learning not to jump on people but learning that he should jump up into the truck, learning that he should take naps and doesn't always have to be busy, and learning that he likes to swim. Training is now becoming fun since it's smaller corrections and less frequently. Now I can take more time to just enjoy Tailor.

Picking him up from vacation

Today I returned from Denver. He didn't recognize me, he had grown, his bark had changed from that of a puppy to that of a man, and he barked at everything. I called Brian. "He doesn't recognize me, he's grown, his bark is like that of a man (I'm sure I said that differently), and he's barking at everything." Again, Brian knew what to say, "He's probably just tired, of course he's grown since he's a puppy, of course his bark is deeper, and we expected him to lapse a little in some of his training while at the dog hotel. Don't worry, once you get him home he'll remember everything again." Brian was right.

In addition, the dogs had taught him not to jump up anymore. I had had little success with this since he'd blindside me from the back when I was least expecting it. Very hard to correct a surprise attack like that. However, the pack had taught him that he was too old to do this and he had learned his lesson. Success!

However, I soon had new frustrations.

When I fed Tailor lunch then dinner he wasn't hungry either time. He looked at the food then looked at me and just stared at it for a bit. He ate it, but not with the hunger that he used to.

Tailor's #2 early evening was complete soupy diarrhea. Hmmm, when checking Tailor out of the place I had asked for his bag. I was wondering why it took her so long to retrieve it and now I understood: I think they hadn't fed him his food all week so when I asked for the bag, she had to find it and remove the right # of food bags so I wouldn't know he was fed regular food (and probably only 2x per day). Now his body needed to transition back to puppy food, so it was causing diarrhea and his new/original eating schedule was confusing.

I looked at the bill. The $32 bath cost $38. Not a deal breaker, but the breakdown in communication doesn't make for an incredibly happy customer.

When I was pet sitting my mother's last dog I learned that it was difficult to find a good pet sitter. Even though Tailor is a relatively low maintenance dog to watch for a place such as a pet hotel, it looks like we'll have to keep looking.

Dropping him off for vacation

Today our family had separate logistical plans:
Brian's drove from Trinidad, CO to Denver,
I flew from Boston to Denver,
the cats stayed home, and
Tailor went to a dog hotel.

I researched about 30 different dog resorts to find a great one for Tailor. My first two picks were already booked, but my 3rd choice was available. They have doggy daycare so Tailor can spend his entire day with dogs. They had been around for over 20 years. They are outside of the city in a quiet, rural area. They love dogs.

When I dropped Tailor off, I gave the employee directions: "Tailor's toys, treats and food are in this bag. He needs to be fed this food 3x per day and I separated the food into individual serving bags to make it easy." The girl tilted her head, looked at her colleague and said, "Do we feed 3x per day?" Immediately I thought I'd need to pull Tailor out and cancel our trip. Any place not willing to feed a puppy 3x a day is the wrong place to be. Apparently she was new b/c her more well seasoned colleague responded, "Of course we do. Puppies need to be fed 3x daily." Whew, looks like I could still go on my trip. I asked them to bathe Tailor on the last day and they quoted me $32 since he's a short-haired puppy and she noted that it will cost $38 once he's an adult. Excellent.

While driving home I called Brian. "I dropped him off. He's gone and I miss him already. What do you think he's doing (this would become my common question all weekend)?" Brian knew what to say, "He's playing with the other puppies and having a blast. Don't worry, he'll love his vacation, will be so tired from playing, and will be excited to see you when you return."

He's a swimmer!

He did it! We took Tailor to a pond today and stood at the edge. Brian grabbed a stick, got Tailor excited then tossed it into the water a few feet away. Tailor walked in, grabbed it and ran back. After a couple tosses, Brian tossed it deep enough so Tailor had to swim. He hesitated a little but went for it and was soon going crazy.

He did it! He's a swimmer!